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"The Forty Rules of Love" Elif Shafak - Book Review


Hello Learners,
The Day 2 of quarantine was spend in reading a wonderful by a Turkish writer Elif Shafak “The Forty Rules of Love”. Before you misinterpret it as a love story let me clear the plot and purpose.

“The Forty Rules of Love” has a parallel narrative. Both are interconnected. One tells a contemporary story of Ella whose life is filled with emptiness. She starts reading a manuscript named “Sweet Blasphemy” written by Aziz.Z.Zahara for a literary agency. The other is the story which lies in that manuscript. The story of a Sufi poet Rumi and Shamz of Tabriz, where he shares the forty rules of love and life.  The narration involves the travel of Shams through which he gets to know Rumi and how Shams imparts his knowledge.

The Forty rules embarked the spiritual journey of Rumi and also his companionship with his preacher Shamz. Here the forty rules helps Ella to find purpose of her life and fills life with happiness and meaning. She also finds a friend Aziz.Z.Zahara.

The book also talks about companionship between two people exploring the journey not necessarily of what we assume. Every companionship leads us to a new unexplored journey. Whether it’s companionship with parents, teachers, friends or even any stranger you are meeting for the first time.

The book introduces us to the mystic world of Sufism and how it is interweaves in the contemporary time. In this age of digitization, we read many quotes of Rumi. This book is perfect if you like his quotes. Also those who are fond to read philosophical books will like it.

The best thing I like about this book is that at the end of it has a page of glossary, works cited and a small interview of the writer Elif Shafak. It shows the ethical behavior of the writer and his team.
It is a very quick review of the book which I shall edit later for some detailed analysis.

Worth Reading Book!
Happy Learning!

Comments

  1. Quite interesting review, indeed. Have heard about this book and surely review of it, took my interest to read it like Rumi on rent is presented here.

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